Covid Update: India Logs 1,054 New Cases As Country Begins Booster Dose Vaccination For 18+

Under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive, 14,38,792 new COVID vaccine jabs were administered. Over 1.8 crore vaccine shots have been administered to the people of the country so far.

Covid testing in India (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: India logged 1,054 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hrs taking the active cases in the country to 11,132 which accounts for 0.03 per cent of the total cases. 

With the addition of new covid infections the positivity rate of the country now stands at  0.25 per cent, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday. 

According to the ministry, 29 patients lost their lives due to the infection in the country during the last 24 hours taking the death toll to 5,21,685. As many as 1,258 COVID patients recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours taking the total number of recoveries since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,25,02,454.

The recovery rate in the country currently is 98.76 per cent.

As many as 4,18,345 COVID samples were tested on Saturday. A total of 79.38 crore tests have been conducted in the country so far. The weekly positivity rate stands at 0.23 per cent.

Under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive, 14,38,792 new COVID vaccine jabs were administered in the last 24 hours. 1,85,70,71,655 vaccine shots have been administered to the people of the country so far.

India has also started the vaccination drive to inoculate the 18+ age group with the Covid booster dose.

Active cases: 11,132 (0.03%)

Death toll: 5,21,685

Total recoveries: 4,25,024,54

XE Variant found in Mumbai man who travelled to Gujarat

 Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 132 new coronavirus cases and six pandemic-related deaths besides one case of the XE variant, the state health department said.

The state's infection tally rose to 78,75,080, and the death toll reached 1,47,816. On Friday, Maharashtra reported 130 cases and four fatalities. A 67-year old Mumbai resident who had travelled to Vadodara last month was found to have contracted the new XE variant of coronavirus, a health official said, adding that it was reported by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), as mentioned in a PTI report.

This person was tested for COVID-19 as he was suffering from a mild fever on March 12 during his Vadodara visit. Now the patient is totally asymptomatic and stable. He has taken both the doses of Covishield vaccine. Contact tracing of this patient is in process, the official said.

The XE variant is a combination of BA.1 and BA.2 strains of Omicron, and is considered more transmissible than other strains.

The health department said in its release that frequent changes in genomic structure are part of the natural life course of viruses, and there is no need for fear but precaution should be taken. Meanwhile, 135 patients recovered since previous evening in the state, and the total of recovered patients rose to 77,26,461.